An Anglican church in Kent, south-east England, is taking the 'revolutionary' step of employing a full-time journalist to report on community and church-based news.
St Margaret's, Rainham is advertising for a 'multi-skilled qualified journalist' to join the church's staff team on an annual salary of £20,000 ($25,300).
The move comes as the outlook for local newspapers looks increasingly bleak. Even before the lockdown, titles were facing major challenges with much advertising revenue going to Facebook, Google and other digital platforms. Readers are increasingly consuming their news free online, with often the originators of the news receiving little or no payment.
A recent survey showed that UK newspapers could lose 30 per cent of their advertising revenues because of the Covid-19 pandemic - around £500 million ($633 million) in a year. Many reporters could lose their jobs and news organisations close.
Vicar of St Margaret's, Nathan Ward explained: "For thousands of years it is stories which have kept communities together and sadly in recent years local journalism has been under increasing pressures which reduce the amount of truly 'local content.'
"As a church we want to step into this gap and employ a Community Journalist – an appointment which I believe is revolutionary. It comes as we respond to a community survey, we conducted which revealed that people wanted local news as a way of dealing with the lockdown."
Bishop of Tonbridge Simon Burton-Jones has backed the move. He said: "The shrinkage in local journalism as advertising gravitates online is already having really important consequences at community level.
"As long-standing local papers disappear and the remaining ones have had to cut back their staff and close, their long-standing and important links with their communities can be lost. Online alternatives like clickbait, lists, gossip and the like are no substitute for real journalism.
"The lack of local journalism also brings a lack of scrutiny - Grenfell Tower is an example, where local residents had raised concerns about the cladding, but it was too local a story for the nationals and there was a lack of local reporting to pick it up, through which a wider audience might have connected."
In the job description, the Church explains: "Whether it's telling the story of the local fish shop, how the restaurant owners are coping whilst shut or the history behind 'The Oast' House and what it's doing now – we want a multi skilled, qualified journalist to join our staff team as soon as possible.
"Half of the stories you produce will focus on the local community – its people and groups, schools and new housing. The other half will focus on telling the story of the church, its people, purpose and history. You'll also take a lead on all of our digital content including overseeing the live streaming of our services.
"We believe this is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference in a local community through serious journalism."
St Margaret's is hoping the successful candidate will start in July.
Peter Crumpler is a Church of England priest in St Albans, Herts, and a former Director of Communications with the CofE.
